Page:The Next Naval War - Eardley-Wilmot - 1894.djvu/62

 There were many who declared the next sea fight would not be won by an extra inch of armour, or an additional foot in the velocity of a gun. A thousand tons more or less will count little in the scale when pitted against the personal element. Success would be to the side which handled best the weapons provided. There was nothing to indicate how this would go. Each country had striven to give its personnel a thorough training in all that tends to excellence at sea. We knew what our own Navy had done in China, New Zealand, the Crimea, Egypt and those numerous small wars in which we had been engaged. Our neighbours had similar experiences—Admiral Farragut had witnessed the French operations against Mexico in 1838, and recorded his impressions of their fleet. Writing to Commodore Barron at the time, he had said: "The English and ourselves may affect to despise the French by sea, but depend upon it they are in science far ahead of us both, and when England next meets France upon the ocean she will find a different enemy from that of the last war."

Since then their progress has been continuous, and a feeling of confidence prevailed throughout the service, indicating that no endeavour would be wanting to ensure success.

Such were the general conditions when, on the 3rd of March, in the early morning, the forces of the two Powers in the Mediterranean once more